A cute pet-adoption story laced with light chills.
One of these cats is not like the others.
“On a crisp autumn evening, beneath the blood moon’s light, tucked among tombstones…six kittens were born.” One kitty stands out: She has black fur, green eyes, and long fangs, and every sunrise she lets out a yowl that commands the attention of Victor, a boy with light tan skin and, curiously, the swooped-back black hair of an Old Hollywood actor (more on this later). Victor decides to investigate the nearby graveyard and goes gaga for the cat, who has the power to fly and hypnotize; Victor names her Vampurr. After the cemetery’s groundskeeper announces that all the kittens need homes, every cat but Vampurr is adopted—for most people, special powers aren’t a huge selling point in a pet. But Victor isn’t like most people, made clear by visual clues—he wears a ball cap with a bat silhouette; also, remember his hair?—that offer hints leading up to a big reveal about him and his father. The everyone-has-someone-who-loves-them premise is awfully sweet, and Colón’s text works, although the puns are well worn (“fangtastic,” “purrfectly”). The book does double duty as a pet lover’s go-to and a Halloween mainstay: Wen’s wavy-edged, digitally colored pencil art conveys a gratifyingly unsettling mood with its palette dominated by indigo, magenta, and slime green.
A cute pet-adoption story laced with light chills. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: July 7, 2026
ISBN: 9780374392802
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2026
A top-grade creepy/funny addition to the spooky-picture-book canon.
Is a cute kitty built in a castle’s laboratory responsible for the bad things that start happening?
“Here is a tale to chill the blood and thrill the soul—a tale of spooky paws and eerie claws.” The disembodied talking skull who narrates this story is alluding to Frankenkitty, who was engineered out of multiple cats, with visible stitches to show for it. As the house ghouls look on, Frankenkitty’s inventor laments, “I’ve created a monster!” Sure enough, bad things start happening: The mummy begins to unravel. Kitchen mice terrorize the cook. Certainly, Frankenkitty must be to blame. But after the butler, who resembles Frankenstein’s Monster, tosses Frankenkitty outside into the snow, where he looks forlorn and adorable, the skull has second thoughts: “Wait! Did we get it wrong?” It’s up to readers to make the call. Powell-Tuck goes all in with her spoof of old-time horror tropes, although kids needn’t know who Boris Karloff is to be tickled. For the book’s every scare (a severed foot and hand, their bones visible), there’s a wink (in a bit of metafictive fun, the skull urges readers to opt for a story about “unicorns, beasts, or bears”). Grey, a glutton for detail, leans on menacing reds and sickly greens to capture the frights, which include, in a line for the spooky-story ages, “walls as gray as old underpants.” Human characters vary in skin tone.
A top-grade creepy/funny addition to the spooky-picture-book canon. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: July 7, 2026
ISBN: 9781664300972
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tiger Tales
Review Posted Online: March 23, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
More fun antics to satisfy returning fans and snag new ones.
Not even the arrival of autumn can cool down this impetuous squirrel.
Although Squirrel is skeptical about Bird’s vegetable patch (“Nothing is HAPPENING!”), Bird does produce five (count them) lovely pumpkins. Squirrel picks out a favorite: “The enormous orange one.” Bird hints that Squirrel might want to help out; Squirrel sets out to fetch some work gloves and returns to find only four pumpkins. The frequently distracted Squirrel notices more gourds disappearing and leaps to the conclusion that a thief is near. And where’s Bird?! Has Squirrel’s pal also been taken? Diligently detecting, Squirrel finds clues—peck marks, footprints, and more—and produces a sketch of the suspect. As readers will guess, each clue turns out to point to one of Squirrel and Bird’s friends. Turns out Bird was delivering pumpkins to their pals while saving the big one to give to “my very best friend,” Squirrel. But why does Squirrel haul it up a tree? “So the Pumpkin Thief can’t find it, of course!” A page of pumpkin facts provides the learning component common to all titles in this series. Once more, readers will enjoy the pleasure of prediction and repetition, Squirrel’s silly persistence, Bird’s generosity, and the vibrant color illustrations, balancing orange with green.
More fun antics to satisfy returning fans and snag new ones. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: July 28, 2026
ISBN: 9781464268076
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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